Located just two hours outside of DC, in Basye, VA, (and our second DC outpost) Postcard Cabins Shenandoah North is nestled in a bustling town with plenty of spots to explore. Here are a few of the spots we’d recommend you check out while you’re on your escape to nature.
Walks in the Woods
Laura Lake Trail Loop Distance: 2.5 miles Difficulty: easy Dogs allowed This trail loops around Laura Lake, and it’s the perfect hour-long stroll to enjoy some time in nature with those who matter most.
South Link, Bradford Trail and North Link Distance: 2.3 miles Difficulty: easy Dogs allowed This loop trail will lead you through the forest, across streams, and through patches of wildflowers. This trail takes about an hour to complete and is best visited between May and September.
North Mountain Distance: 4.6 miles Difficulty: hard Dogs allowed For more seasoned hikers, North Mountain is the perfect out-and-back trail for a great workout. Be prepared for steep inclines, rocky terrain, and great views.
Sustenance and Snacks
Community Store ~ 6 minutes away Make a pitstop at the Community Store near the Outpost to grab those final ingredients you’ll need to create your favorite campfire recipes.
Broad Porch Coffee Co ~ 48 minutes away Head to Broad Porch Coffee Co for a delicious breakfast and the best cup of joe around.
Rhouse Wine + Café ~ 6 minutes away Enjoy a beautiful dinner at Rhouse Wine + Café with some amazing local wine.
Things to Do Around the Outpost
Hawksbill Brewing Company ~ 49 minutes away Try some local craft brews and enjoy an afternoon at the brewery with those who matter most.
Bank Street Books ~ 48 minutes away Stop at Bank Street Books to pick up some new titles to escape into on your weekend away.
Luray Caverns ~ 45 minutes away For the more adventurous travelers, head to Luray Caverns to head underground to explore the Luray caves.
Here’s a handy guide for getting to our DC Location and local spots to pick up any supplies you may need. While there’s a lot to do in the area, we suggest taking a break from planning in excess and simply enjoying the time away from your daily routine and hustle
Parking + Public Transportation
Wheels are your best bet to getaway, and parking is easy—just pull up and park next to your tiny cabin. The best alternative is to take an Amtrak train to Charlottesville, then call Greene County Transit (which operates on weekdays) or a cab (iTaxi, 434-327-6622) to take you the rest of the way.
Walks in the Woods
Want to remove the walls between you and nature? Take a trip down one of these nearby hiking trails just a short drive away.
Hightop Mountain Distance: 5.6 miles, about 3 hours Difficulty: Easy Dogs allowed on-leash An easy hike up the highest peak in the South District of Shenandoah National Park, Hightop Mountain offers excellent view to the south and west from the second overlook.
White Oak Canyon Trail Distance: 9.5 miles, about 4-5 hours Difficulty: Hard Dogs allowed on-leash If you’re in search of waterfalls, head out on White Oak Canyon Trail. It can be a strenuous hike, but you can also adjust your mileage and make it shorter by skipping some of the sections.
Blue Hole Distance: 2.5 miles, about 1.5 hours Difficulty: Easy Dogs allowed on-leash For even more water, hike Moorman’s Trail to Blue Hole and spend some time soaking in the swimming hole before heading back to your cabin.
Sustenance & Snacks
If you’re in need of extra supplies, you can find several stores nearby to fulfill your needs and fill your belly.
Wolftown Mercantile Country Store, 3801 Wolftown-Hood Rd, Madison, VA 22727 A classic country store where you can stop for a sandwich and other snacks while you listen in on the banter of the locals.
Yoder’s Country Market, 2105 S Seminole Trail, Madison, VA 22727 For a wider selection, head to Yoder’s and find a fully stocked grocery store as well as a pharmacy.
Payton’s Grocery, 9658 Spotswood Trail, Stanardsville, VA 22973 This spot is a great place to pick up small items, snacks, beer, and wine. They also serve some of the best fried chicken around.
Revelation Vineyards, 2710 Hebron Valley Rd, Madison, VA 22727 For some local wine within the Blue Ridge Mountains, Revelation Vineyards is the perfect spot to spend an afternoon at a tasting, enjoying the beauty the landscape provides.
Notes on Nature
Many of the peaks in Shenandoah National Park were created by greenstone lava flows over 570 million years ago, and most of the waterfalls that you might explore were formed when streams carved a path through the layers of lava.
If you’re staring at the sunset and think you see a bird, you might want to take a second look because it could be a big brown bat, an important animal in the ecosystem of the area.
Although warmer weather is great for outdoor adventures, the sky in Shenandoah tends to be hazier in the summer, and you’ll tend to see the most spectacular vista views on clearer winter days.
Looking for some chill vibes for your trip down to one of our Outposts? We’ve found the perfect playlist for you.
While participating in our Artist Fellowship Program, student and aspiring musician Sam McCoig curated the perfect playlist for your Getaway. Featuring artists like Jack Johnson, Mandolin Orange, and the Avett Brothers, Sam’s playlist is the perfect pick for your Sunday brunch or for your afternoon drive.
With the hustle and bustle of city life, we know it can be hard for artists to find uninterrupted time to create. That’s why we created our Artist Fellowship Program, to give creatives a space in nature to work on their projects. We love seeing what our artists come up with and we’re excited to share some of our fellows from this past month.
Illustrator Fabiola Lara is inspired by a combination of pop culture and her own feelings, whether they are obsession, happiness, anxiety, or sadness. Fabiola has been illustrating since she was young, but she began sharing her work with the world in 2013.
“I’ve been creating since I was a kid,” Fabiola said. “I can remember spending hours drawing Spongebob and making elaborate paper Christmas ornaments.”
Fabiola, who recently spent some time working at our New York Outpost, hopes to one day create the illustrations for the next teen Netflix series.
Samantha Testa, who recently took to our DC Outpost, first began painting and drawing as a little girl with her grandfather. It’s a story that particularly resonated with us, as all of our cabins are named for grandparents.
“He was a phenomenal artist who taught me how to be patient with my work and find joy in creating things,” Samantha explains. “I still have a set of his old rickety brushes that I pull out from time to time.”
Since then, Samantha has drawn her inspiration largely from architecture and vast landscapes. Her dream would be to travel to different cities and paint the structures that represents their history, culture, and vibrancy.
“I love searching for symmetry, angles, ornate details, and color palettes that make me feel inspired to get them down on paper,” Samantha notes. “Aside from the tangible inspiration, there is sometimes just an abstract feeling that compels me to make something with my hands.”
Interested in tapping into your own creativity in nature? Escape today.
Our cabins have everything you need and nothing you don’t—including some great reads vetted by our team and our guests to help you disconnect from the noise, spend some time in reflection, and reconnect to what matters most. If you enjoyed a book during your stay, but forgot to write down the title before you left, we’ve got you covered. Here are the books you’ll find in each of our cabins.
Getting Away: 75 Everyday Practices for Finding Balance in Our Always-On World by Jon Staff
Getting Away, by our founder, Jon Staff, is the perfect book to bring the feelings of your Getaway home with you. In Getting Away, Staff outlines 75 everyday practices you can implement into your week to disconnect from the noise and reconnect to what matters most. Read this book cover to cover for some ideas to deepen your connection with yourself and your loved ones.
Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games by Scott McNeely
One of our favorite ways to disconnect is with a deck of cards, so McNeely’s book is an essential guide to every card game you can think of. We love implementing a digital sabbath, described in Getting Away as one day per week with no screens, and spending an evening instead learning a new card game with friends and family.
What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky by Kelsey Oseid
For astronomy and astrology geeks alike, What We See in The Stars provides details for finding the constellations alongside the myths and legends behind them. If you’re headed to Getaway, make sure to study your favorite constellations and then try to find them in the night sky.
Wanderlust, by Gestalten
Each cabin also has a copy from Gestalten’s Wanderlust series, capturing some of the most scenic spots in the world to inspire the traveler in you to get out into nature and explore more.
Andersen and The Pied Piper of Hameln by Little Gestalten
For our junior explorers, we also have two books by Little Gestalten with beautiful illustrations of classic tales. Let them escape into a story while you escape to nature.
On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
On Trails is part memoir, part nature writing. Robert Moor was an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker who became increasingly interested in the trails under our feet, and he began some adventures to look into how our roads and trails and paths emerged and changed over time, and he interweaves science, history, and philosophy into the tales of his trips.
How to Getaway: Finding Balance in Our Overworked, Overcrowded, Always-On World by Jon Staff and Pete Davis
How to Getaway by our founders, Jon Staff and Pete Davis, investigates our troubled relationships to technology and work in modern life. They look at the science and history behind our seeming inability to slow down in our lives, and provide ideas and remedies to find more balance.
How to Relax by Thich Nhat Hanh
If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration to practice mindfulness, check out How to Relax by world-renowned zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh. In this book, Hanh details the essential components of what constitutes a mindful practice, and with those essentials under your belt, you’ll be able to identify all the opportunities that lie in each day for you to practice presence and letting go.
What was your favorite read during your last escape to nature?
Having just celebrated Earth Day, many of us have been thinking about how much stuff is wasted. And while wasted stuff is a huge problem, I also found myself thinking about how much time is wasted. We scroll endlessly, we swipe, we tap, we watch stuff on Netflix we don’t even like. Most of it doesn’t leave us feeling good about ourselves.
That’s partially because ‘junk time,’ like junk food, squeezes out room for the more important things. If our time diet is filled with junk, we have less room to be creative, to think deeply, to actually connect, in reality, with our friends and family. And we’ll probably forget to make time to call our mothers (friendly reminder: Mother’s Day is coming up on May 13!).
Ditch Your Device. Photo by Michelle Watt.
By no means is all junk time nor everything on the internet a waste. Here are a few bright spots we loved spending time on this past month:
In addition to thinking about junk time, we’ve poured through all of our feedback emails, as usual—144 this month.
Here’s one that really moved us:
“My husband and I came here for some quiet time. Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine. Things are so difficult at work…I personally find myself almost crying every day and I can see the tiredness grow in my husbands’ eyes…you thought of every little detail from the books to the cell phone lockbox to the commitment page. BEYOND PERFECT, if there is such a thing, is what this weekend has been. Thank you for all that you’ve had to do and endure to make Getaway a reality. You will never know how much this place truly means to us now,”
Our jobs have been draining us lately and with each passing day, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to go through our 9 to 5 routine.
We were touched deeply by this note and relate all too well to a lack of work-life balance. Stories like these are why we’re on a mission to create a counterbalance to our lives not only at our tiny cabins, but in our own offices and homes, and hopefully in the everyday lives of our guests. More on this to come.
As we move into May, perhaps try to keep a list of how you spend your time. How much of it is ‘junk time’? How can you make an effort to spend more time on the things that really matter?
Below are a few links to things we’ve been thinking about lately. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have feedback or ideas.
Be well,
Jon, CEO + Founder
ITEMS OF NOTE WORTH TAKING THE TIME FOR
Photo by Zak Suhar.
Driven to Distraction — Cozy up in a chair to read this powerful essay by Rebecca Solnit that tackles what it means to live in an uber-connected society. “Even our ability to find our way through a given landscape has been outsourced to devices.”
Work-Life Balance as a Social Media Manager — Managing social media as a career can be a tough challenge for work-life balance. We speak with leaders from companies we admire from Headspace to Virgin to Away.
I have been raised in South Texas most of my life, and have lived in Austin just 3 years now. I am a commercial and lifestyle photographer that has shot almost every type of shoot you could think of. I have a lot of field experience shooting photography as I have shot with many diverse types of clients/brands. My creative practice involves spending each week doing the following 4 things: shooting, editing, client reach, and marketing. I spend an ample amount of time on each, but editing usually takes up the majority of my time.
Without nature, I would have never found my passion for photography. I started shooting while I began camping often in college. I realized the human connection to nature was so deep and I really wanted to capture the true beauty of nature even though no photo will compare to one’s true experience in it. Nature is a constant influencer of my art. The color of leaves, the snow-capped mountains, the red-toned rocks all shape my eye for shooting and editing.
The Getaway was exactly what I needed at the right time. I was coming off of a heavy work week. And, to get out in nature without phone service/wifi brought some clarity back to me. I had more time to process and brainstorm creative ideas in the cabin, and the surrounding beauty of the cabin and nature gave me the inspiration for my creative flow.
How would you feel if your next corporate workshop or training were on the back of a horse?
An entrepreneur after our own heart, Kristin Meek believes that getting out of the office and into nature is how to get the most out of her time with business and corporate clients. By pulling them out of white walls and fluorescent lights and inviting them to her ranch in Virginia, Meek finds that she’s better able to guide clients to clear their minds, identify their individual (or team) strengths and values, and strengthen them through her careful, nature-based curriculum.
Meek studied Psychology at Duke and went on to get her Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at University of Pennsylvania. Before founding WYLD, she was a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and public school districts – helping everyone from senior executives to elementary school kids develop talents and build a sense of purpose. Eventually, she left her consultant job and focused on bringing fresher air and fresher perspectives into her sessions.
We’re big fans of the work that Kristin and her team are doing and had to find out more.
Everything in the great outdoors is a metaphor for the lessons and paradoxes of life and work.
Tell us your story: I grew up incredibly blessed with a great education, great health, and wonderful friendships and mentors. Because of this gift, I’ve felt a profound responsibility to create meaningful experiences for people of all ages. Nature is our greatest classroom and I believe it is in the presence of the wilderness where we can learn best about our own true nature and “true north”. Everything in the great outdoors is a metaphor for the lessons and paradoxes of life and work.
My curiosity for psychology, ancient wisdom, and experiential learning were little signs to a bigger calling, which is now my life’s project and business, WYLD.
WYLD was originally founded as a side hustle on my family’s working cattle ranch in Wyoming in 2013. I thought it might be a cool idea to use the Wild West and ranching activities like fly fishing or herding cattle as learning modalities to teach people about their strengths and unique internal GPS as leaders, artists, and parents. Last August, I decided to hang up my consultant hat and give WYLD the full-time focus I felt it needed.
Nine months later, we have an incredible team across the US and our mission is resonating with so many: we guide individuals, teams, and businesses in the intentional design of how they spend their time. We use their talent, build their tribe, and personalize their environments. The way we do this is through consulting, experiential off-sites, retreats, and coaching. WYLD draws from positive psychology, neuroscience, Gallup workplace research, ancient wisdom, and ecopsychology to create customized learning experiences.
The llamas.
What occupies most of your time during the day? Typically, I’m coaching individuals or designing curriculum for different client teams. A lot of my day is spent playing and brainstorming with the team around various needs we have for the next three months. I also tend to visit my chickens to gather fresh eggs for my avocado toast.
I’d say our days are a split between being and doing — laziness and adventure.
What occupies most of your time during the weekend? My husband and I (and our black lab, Olive) live on a farm so there are a lot of chores to be done on the weekends. I’d say our days are a split between being and doing — laziness and adventure. I try to be outdoors as much as I can, which can be hard with the inertia of deadlines, books to read, or Netflix. Sam, my husband, lures me out of the house because he’s usually building or fixing something or taking the llamas for a walk. I also love taking baths, reading, and cooking yummy meals for friends.
What do you wish you had more time to do? Read and philosophize! Ideally in my bathtub or outside in the woods. Life goal: bathtub in the woods.*
*Editor’s Note: Us, too.
We cannot be in a state of flow when doing more than one thing at a time.
What do you wish you did less of? Multitask. I’m working HARD at a single task at a time but my brain can feel like kittens playing with yarn sometimes. I recently read Ikigai – The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life and it gave some compelling evidence about how unproductive and inefficient we are when we multitask. We cannot be in a state of flow when doing more than one thing at a time. This got my attention big time and now I bring this into my coaching and workshops… that said, I just opened 10 other tabs and answered a text, ha.
What is your favorite non-digital activity? Taking a bath.
What is your favorite tech or app that helps you balance your life? I love Inscape, which is a guided meditation, sound healing, and relaxation app. Typically I use it when I wake up to start my day and when I fall asleep.
I also believe we should work in ways that give us energy and work when we have energy.
How do you manage work-life balance as an entrepreneur? Ritual, practicing what I preach, being in nature, and trying to do one thing at a time. A favorite mantra I have is poco a poco, or little by little. It helps me slow down. I work to harness my strengths to manage my time in a way that feels good to me, even if it may seem crazy to other people.
I also believe we should work in ways that give us energy and work when we have energy. If that means 10 PM at night, cool. I try to remind myself and get reminders from others to take lots of breaks and get movement throughout the day. There’s a ton of research on how helpful this is for our wellbeing and mind.
Kristin on her family ranch.
If you could have a day off to spend anywhere with anyone, what would you do? I’d like my Grandma Jane (who’s no longer alive) to give me a tour of her hometown in County Cork, Ireland where she lived on a working farm and used to ride her horse to school every day.
What would you pack in a suitcase if you had to live with only those items for the rest of your life? The book Simple Abundance(part of my daily ritual), pictures of my friends and family, a never-run-out-of-ink pen and a massive journal, probably some avocados, a boho dress, and my glasses or contacts.
What do you think you’d be doing in a world without technology? Riding horses. Writing, reading, teaching, and sending snail mail letters all the time.
Who are your favorite writers? Mary Oliver. Anne Lammot. David Brooks. Dan Pink.
How do you create balance in your life? What is balance…a moving target, inner peace? I tend to listen to my body and go from there. She doesn’t lead me astray; I just have to listen. Learning how to listen, though, is what takes practice and time. Balance isn’t doing things at 50/50. It changes every day, just like doing my best is different each day.
Which living person do you most admire? Oprah. I even wrote her a letter when I was a child.
